Everyday Lives, Second Chances: Rusty Schwimmer Turns Romantic Comedienne in Offbeat Wild Honey

Rusty Schwimmer is likely the most prolific actress ever to come out of Chicago, her long career in Hollywood movies, indie films and what seems like every television show ever broadcast a testament to the ubiquitous star’s boundless imagination in a slew of high-profile character roles, as they call them, a euphemism for the meaty good stuff supporting many a movie.

After more than three decades in the industry there isn’t much Schwimmer hasn’t done, her richly diverse oeuvre comprised of commercial pictures with A-list directors Steven Spielberg (Amistad), Alfonso Cuaron (A Little Princess) Steven Soderbergh (The Informant!) and slew of memorable turns in pictures like The Perfect Storm, North Country, Twister and Runaway Jury. Nice work, if you can get it, and Schwimmer always does, often digging in with signature, hardscrabble realness and grit.

The New Trier grad and Chicago native found her home city a fertile training ground before moving to Los Angeles where she built a steady, high-profile resume in every corner of the film and television industries, from the commercial slam-dunks to quiet indies like The Sessions and radical thrillers like The Belko Experiment. And who can forget her turns in cult movies like Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Sleepwalkers and the Chicago horror classic Candyman?

And we still haven’t even scratched the surface of her extensive television work in everything from AMC’s Broken Trail to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation to Grey’s Anatomy to Gilmore Girls to Desperate Housewives. Just when you think Schwimmer has done it all—there is so much more.

I caught up with Rusty Schwimmer recently to chat about her new picture, Wild Honey, which may be her first true lead movie role as a down-on-her-luck, forty-nine-year-old Chicagoan with relationship, family and legal woes, and whose stint as an unlikely phone sex operator presents an unexpected path to a new life. Over the course of an afternoon she shared many a Hollywood tale, and some personal ones, too, about the anxieties and joys of meeting her idols, the strength of her close family relationships and our mutual love for classic movie scores.

Wild Honey, written and directed by Schwimmer’s longtime collaborator and friend Francis Stokes, is a romantic comedy with a light touch on some serious themes, and the star runs with the ball for 90 enjoyable minutes, liberated by her multidimensional, front and center character. She makes us laugh, often with her, at the absurdity of her character’s dilemmas, then makes us empathize even more. She’s built a career doing both, and it’s a treat to see those qualities driving her movie.

You’re in nearly every scene of Wild Honey and playing a character we may not typically see in an American movie.

She is a representation of so many people I know. A little bit of me, like my energy, but certainly not me.

And she was written specifically for you.

Yes, (writer and director) Francis Stokes wrote this for me. We had worked together a few times and he said, ‘I want to write something for you.’ And usually when you hear that in L.A. you say, ‘Great.’ And you never hear from them again. Three months later it was in my inbox. He said, ‘People don’t really get to see you as you.’ I thought that was awesome and told him I wanted Gabby to be a middle-class Jew from Niles. I find them fascinating and I have in-laws and friends like that. You never get to see that person played anywhere, yet it exists in life much more than the Jew who is typically satirized in movies and television. I’ve always played Catholics and I wanted to play a Jew. That’s what I am, right?

So in Wild Honey we sent the character to L.A. and for her that was fancy, so she was going to have her fancy L.A. clothes ready when she gets to the airport (‘I’m going to wear stonewash!’). Also, what we don’t see in the movies are people my age who still, for example, wear the things that they wore when they were at their hottest! She is age inappropriate and all kinds of stuff, and I wanted to highlight these real-life things. I wanted to play a woman that I see every day, who is unconventionally beautiful and may not be Emma Stone or Meg Ryan, like in most romantic comedies, but has a full-life and is going through all the ups and downs.

Speaking of ups and downs, I think you sometimes get to a point in life where you wonder, ‘Is this it? This is the part I was waiting for to start?’ It is easy to drift.

Right! She was also aimless and fine with that, but after a while she saw how everything was falling apart. There she was in her old bedroom with her high school photo, which was my high school photo. She was like, ‘What happened?’ She had to move back home and feels like she completely failed. I think Gabby, who is not that self-aware, feels that society failed her also. And the movie also looks at the failure of a parent who feels she didn’t raise her child right.

For many of us it is easy to plug into some of the things Gabby is going through. Society certainly tells us that we are supposed to have achieved certain things by a certain age—career success, marriage, family and the whole bit. And then we get to that age and think, ‘What’s wrong here? I don’t feel different.’ Life is kind of just happening to me.

Yes, absolutely, it’s this ‘Oh, fuck!’ moment.  She is absolutely that person. I think there are so many people in this world that are not that self-aware. They just kind of go through life letting things happen to them rather than making things happen. So finally making things happen—like going to L.A.—was a huge turning point for her.

When we first meet Gabby the juxtaposition of her new vocation and the mundane household activities is absurdist comedy and truly funny.

Yes, sure. That was Francis who was like, ‘I want you to be doing your laundry.’ So mundane! And of course, she does things so half-assed, so I thought that perhaps maybe she didn’t even do the laundry that well, so she’s smelling her socks like, ‘Did I do it right? Did I put enough soap in it?’

The voice you employ in those scenes is really something. I was convinced it could not be you, but then of course I knew it was!

It’s so bad, isn’t it?  I call it my ‘sexy baby voice.’ I’ve been with my manager for twenty years and she said, ‘That’s somebody else’s voice doing you!’ I said (employing sexy baby voice) ‘No, that’s my voice!’ Even she didn’t know!

You mentioned Gabby going to L.A. to sort of break her cycle. I loved that what we expect to happen with her expected prince charming—since we live in a world where people ghost each other and hide behind aliases—doesn’t exactly happen. He shows up!  

Especially because he saw a picture of her. And that in movies drives me crazy, where people think horrible things will happen to her because of how she looks. Because in real life this stuff doesn’t happen like it does in the movies.

The taking of the picture is a refreshing moment. Sometimes we spend so much time trying to be our ‘best selves’ on social media, yet Gabby just primps a tiny bit before sending the picture. But mostly, she is who she is.

Yes not too much primping! I purposely made sure she didn’t really put any make-up on and that she just made sure her eyebrows were okay—on fleek!—and that was it. And I liked that idea! Initially, Francis wanted my character to bond with Martin’s daughter, Francesca, so we had another scene where she asks if I’m dating her father and then she says, ‘Let me do your make-up.’ And I was like, ‘Frank, no. That doesn’t happen. It happens in film but not in real life!’ Yet he still wanted a bonding moment which I said was easy—either she takes toilet paper from my foot or puts the tag back into my dress.’ Women do that all they time and they appreciate it. So there was the bonding!

The movie has a high time lampooning L.A. culture, from avant-garde theater to celebrity chefs to a very funny line about Snoop Dogg and an overall immersion into its world of creatives, portrayed as unmistakably Californian.    

Yeah, it’s really like that! I don’t know if I would have been able to make this movie this way if I still lived in L.A. When I came back to Chicago I thought, ‘What is a reality in L.A. that is not necessarily one everywhere else?’ And I could discern this because I was there for twenty-four years! So I loved that I came back to Chicago and got settled before I could make this movie and really show those types.

Stephnie Weir is terrific as your sister in the film. I think it’s the only time I’ve ever heard the word ‘brandishing’ said aloud.

‘I was brandishing!’ Isn’t she great? And she said it almost in a Chicago accent, which to me was terrific because her character had spent all those years in L.A. yet when she freaks out the Chicago accent comes back. Sometimes I work with someone and it can be really fun and we are having a great time, and sometimes it can be like, ‘Come on, let’s go.’ With Stephnie I thought, ‘I have to get my shit together.’ Because she was so good and so precise.

And very detailed in her reactions and listening.

So much detail and subtlety. I think that all three of them—Timothy Omundson, Todd Stashwick and Stephnie—are all playing against their types. And I was playing against my type too. She usually plays the crazy one and I usually play the one who is grounded.

There’s the scene where you first arrive at her place and tell her something, and she sarcastically says, ‘That’s lovely.’ And she’s alone in the kitchen and has these beats.

Yes. It’s almost like she rolls her eyes and thinks, ‘Oh, she just saw that.’ I admire the crap out of her. She is just so good! And she is an intense introvert. So shy. I am an extroverted introvert because the definition of being an introvert is that you get your energy from being alone. And that’s how I get mine. Yet I’m friendly to people. I can get shy quickly and pretend that I am not.  But she is a true introvert.

You wouldn’t know it from the movie. I also love that scene between the two of you in the car, near the end.

That scene makes me tear up because it is about my sisters. It’s a love letter to my sisters, who are my best friends. I wear this ring (showing me) in every movie, which is my sister ring. I got lucky in Twister because the director, Jan de Bont, liked me and let me light this lantern and my ring was in the movie. The only time I could never wear the ring was on A Little Princess, but they put it in my sash. My sisters are everything to me. They are the reason I am who I am. I’m going to start crying!

The moment where Timothy comes across the parking lot is a huge relief and a sort of wish fulfillment. We really would like to see Gabby happy in this film and that is a special moment.

Yes, exactly! I loved that parking lot scene.

He seems like exactly what is needed at that moment. Truly, there is nothing really wrong with him; like Gabby, he is just trying to figure things out.

Right. And he lied.

Well, yes, there’s that.

But that was the thing about her—she was always telling the truth. And what was great here was that I had just enough of a healthy crush on both Timothy and Todd that I could use it! And it would be safe because both are happily married to some kick-ass women that I love! So I was like, ‘This is awesome! It’s safe, but I can just let it go!’ So when he was walking across the parking lot, I had goosebumps.

It’s interesting that Gabby never asks him for a photo before meeting. She sort of just falls for who he is, or who she thinks he is, as a person.

Yes! It starts with the fortune cookie! So when he says that line, she can’t believe it and feels like they are meant to be together.  She’s someone who has bought into the sort of Disney characters’ definitions of true love. She can’t believe how much they have in common.

I was touched by their moment back at his place when he confesses that if she really knew him, she wouldn’t like him. And your gesture where you quiet him. She really does care for him.

Yes, right. She thinks he is a very cool guy and very smart and it will make her smarter by hanging out with him. She can’t believe he has so much going on in his life because she doesn’t have anything going on.

And truthfully, what he presents is cool, like how she ends up with him at that reading. It’s like she touches down in L.A. and suddenly the world opens up and life is exciting, like the dream of arriving there and suddenly being ‘in the business.’

Yes, she can’t believe it. And I know those people because some are my relatives and when they come to a screening I see, on their faces, something I’ve never seen before, which is this ‘I’m in with the cool people.’

It’s funny because it is easy to get that way, like if I’m interviewing an icon for whom I have nostalgia or great admiration. You must feel that sometimes when you are on a set with the people who mean something bigger than just a scene partner. I know we are all supposed to play it cool.

I don’t! I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I love you so much.’ I am not easily starstruck but there have been times when I have been, and I just go out there and say it. But that said, I have forbidden myself to meet my idol.

Which is?

Carol Burnett! I’ve had a chance to meet her three times and I’ve refused. If I talk about her, I will start crying. She is everything to me. Everything! And I cannot meet her because I know that I will fall apart, and it won’t be pretty.

Remember when Mary Tyler Moore surprised Oprah and Oprah lost it?  That is what I am picturing.

Oh yes! And when Jimmy Stewart came on Carol’s last show and she lost it? I can’t do it. I will sob and not be able to talk. She is everything to me. She was the first person who showed me that you could be normal and still be an actor. She wasn’t conventionally beautiful, but she was gorgeous, right? She would talk to the audience and be completely normal. And my nine-year-old self thought it was amazing.

Someone should write and cast you as mother and daughter.

Oh, my god. I would die. Tim knew about this and did a show with her and he said, ‘It is my duty in life to introduce you. And I will do it in a controlled setting.’ I started panicking.  I could not deal!  But I already met my other idol and I was okay.

Who is that?

Sidney Poitier. Fantastic! Now with that one I was okay, and he dealt with it.

How did your passion for Poitier come about?

Well, I did not get to watch a lot of television as a kid.

It was off-limits?

We could not watch Batman or The Three Stooges because they were considered too violent. We could see sex, but my mom had a problem with violence.

That’s better, though.

Yes it is! I’m a pacifist because of it, you know? But the things we could watch were The Waltons, All Creatures Great and Small and any Sidney Poitier movie. And this was the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, right?  So I saw them all—A Patch of Blue, Lilies of the Field; all amazing. My mom, a civil rights activist, was madly in love with Sidney Poitier and Anthony Quinn. She passed away after A Little Princess and thank God she got to see that.

But magic actually happened when I met Sidney. I decided to wear my mom’s pearls to this dinner that I knew Sidney would be attending. I said, ‘Mom, I’m bringing you with me. Maybe he will touch these.’ So at the dinner table I’m talking to his wife, Joanna, and he’s also there with Forest Whitaker. And I said to her, ‘Oh, these are my mom’s,’ and I tell her the story. And at this point, Sidney and Forest are having this talk about God versus science, right? So she goes ‘Sidney, you must hear what Rusty is going to say.’ And I didn’t know they were discussing God and science. So he says to me, ‘Do you talk to you mother now that she is not here?’ I said, ‘Yes, every day.’ And he said, ‘Well, tell her I said hello.’  And just then the clasp of the pearls opened and they fell into my lap.

No way.

I can tell you this is true! I went, ‘Oh my God.’ And then Sidney turns to Forest and says, ‘Was that God or science?’ And then we found out what they were discussing.

That is unbelievable. What’s one of your favorite movies?

Harold and Maude. It’s the perfect movie to me. Just perfect.  That and Amelie.

Very sweet.

Those movies are all about the soundtracks. That can make or break a movie. How do you feel about that?

I think we have lost that in contemporary movies.

Yes!

We have lost memorable scores.

Yes!

You remember how much you’d want to go out and buy a soundtrack album back then?

Like The Mission.

Yes. Ennio Morricone.

Oh! Remember The Moderns?

Oh, yes, Alan Rudolph! Great.

That was incredible.

You would listen to the soundtrack to sort of relive the movie.

Exactly.

Music is no longer a character in the movies today. And it can be very random.

Right. It doesn’t match the movie. Especially the last song.

The last song can ruin the movie.

Thank you.

There’s a fun B-movie named Life with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds. And it’s basically an Alien homage with a great creature and a shock ending. The screen cuts to black and then suddenly the song Spirit in the Sky starts blasting; ruined it completely and the mood was destroyed.

What?

The score is crashing, very creepy and then suddenly that song comes on and you are like, ‘I’m out.’

And that bums me out. That feeling you have needs to keep going.

I don’t know if people’s tastes have changed but they don’t seem to be much into soundtracks anymore.

That doesn’t make any sense to me.

If I look back at my LP collection of soundtracks…

Oh my God, so many.

And remember, maybe it wasn’t even the score, but you would need the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack.

Totally!

Footloose. Flashdance. ‘Going on a manhunt….’

Totally, my God. Those were the days.